This site has been inspired by the work of Dr David Korten who argues that capitalism is at a critical juncture due to environmental, economic and social breakdown. This site argues for alternatives to capitalism in order to create a better world.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Clearing the Air About Climate Change

Emissions are unhealthy for us, whether you believe in climate
change or not.

Question is: how do we detach ourselves from this mental
roadblock and confront the real problem?

The discussion about climate change (or global warming) is often
distilled down to two distinct sides - those who believe that the
climate is changing due to the actions of people and those who question
the scientific consensus that the globe is warming and that human
activities including the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are
contributing to a change in the amount of ‘greenhouse gases’ in our
atmosphere.

Instead of two, there are three sides in the climate change discussion.

The Believers

The first is represented by those who shout ‘the sky is falling’ and
each year announce that we are at a tipping point. That if action is not
taken immediately, global calamity is inevitable and unavoidable.

Each
side has its proponents and advocates, of course. Parsing the argument
down to its basic elements is no easy task, particularly in a society
(primarily in the United States) where science - and scientists - are
viewed with skepticism.

Many who seek to deny climate change find justification in fears that
emerged about ‘global cooling,’ despite the fact that that conjecture
had little support in the scientific community.

For me, however, their argument falls apart completely because no one
can claim with intellectual purity that pumping particulate matter and
chemicals into the atmosphere can have a positive impact on our health and wellness.

Despite the fact that exhaust and smoke dissipate visually, the gasses
are still there (diluted but still present) in the atmosphere.

Even ‘clean coal’ [which removes most of the sulfur dioxide (S02),
nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from the process] emits CO2 and
other emissions. Coal-fired power plants are responsible for
approximately one-third of the mercury emitted into the air in the
United States.

So
whether or not you believe climate change is real or not, the fact
remains that we are still changing the chemical composition of the air
we breathe and exposing ourselves to chemicals and compounds that are
known to have health risks.

Medical studies have linked increased levels
of pollution in the air and water to a myriad of health risks,
including strokes and memory loss.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lists particulate matter and
ozone as “known respiratory irritants” that can aggravate asthma either
by themselves or when combined with other environmental factors.

This is
why, when ozone levels in and near our cities reach certain levels ‘ozone alerts’
are issued; so that even those who do not have difficulty breathing
are encouraged to stay inside for health reasons. Recent health studies
also suggest that particulate matter is a risk factor for cardiovascular
disease.

Francesca Dominici, PhD, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health has researched on air quality and the impact on health. She says:

“When we analyzed the data for heart failure, we observed a 1.28% increase in admissions for each 10 microgram per cubic meter
increase in fine particle pollution. Most of these admissions increases
occurred the same day as the rise in fine particle concentration, which
suggests a short lag time between the change in pollution and the
subjects' response.”

Because emissions (a polite term for pollution) are known to be
unhealthy, those who argue against taking action to reduce them because
they don’t believe in climate change are still arguing against public
health.

The salient question to ask then is even if the planet isn’t warming - is this stuff that we really want to breathe?